The Charge

Opening Statement

To be honest, the lasting appeal of Scooby-Doo is a bit mystifying. The
talking canine and his mystery solving teenage pals debuted on CBS's Saturday
morning cartoon line-up way back in 1969 in the Hanna-Barbera produced
Scooby-Doo, Where Are You! In the decades since, no fewer than 10
television series starring the pooch have been produced in various formats and
venues -- each featuring cheap animation and formulaic storytelling. Still,
Scooby remains enormously popular with today's generation of pint-sized TV
viewers, as well as maintaining a nostalgic place in the hearts of his now
middle-aged original fans.

Given the character's lasting popularity, it should come as no surprise that
Warner Bros. decided to make a live action feature film adaptation of the
pooch's adventures. The result was 2002's Scooby-Doo, a film almost
universally reviled by critics, but financially successful enough to warrant
2004's Scooby-Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed.

Scooby-Doo was treated to an HD DVD and Blu-Ray release back in 2007,
when there were still two high definition formats. Scooby-Doo 2: Monsters
Unleashed has never seen a high definition release -- until now.
Scooby-Doo 1 & 2 Collection is a budget release that repackages the
original Scooby-Doo Blu-ray with a second disc containing its sequel.

Facts of the Case

As in Scooby-Doo, Where Are You!, the Scoob flicks follow the
adventures of Mystery, Inc., a paranormal detective business run by a quartet of
teenagers and their speech impediment inflicted Great Dane, Scooby-Doo. Fred
Jones (Freddy Prinze Jr., I Know What You Did Last Summer), the team's
leader, is a clean-cut, blond-haired, (and in the case of these films, entirely
egocentric) all-American boy. Daphne Blake (Sarah Michelle Gellar, Buffy the
Vampire Slayer) is a rich, beautiful, miniskirt wearing redhead skilled in
martial arts as well as being captured by the team's various nemeses. Velma
Dinkley (Linda Cardellini, Freaks and Geeks) is a nerdy, bespectacled
problem solver. Shaggy Rogers (Matthew Lillard, SLC Punk) is an
easily-spooked and always hungry hippie, perpetually dressed in brown
bell-bottoms and a green T-shirt. His best friend is the equally cowardly,
hungry, and bumbling Scooby-Doo. The gang travels around in a custom van called
the Mystery Machine, meddling in and ultimately unraveling the schemes of
criminals who use the paranormal to bilk the gullible and unsuspecting.

Scooby-DooThe gang's first live-action adventure begins in the
Wow-O toy factory as they wrap up the Case of the Luna Ghost. In the wake of
their successful investigation and unable to deal with each other's personal
quirks, the team calls it quits. Two years later, each member of the gang is
approached by Emile Mondavarious (Rowan Atkinson, Mr. Bean), proprietor
of an amusement park called Spooky Island. Mondavarious believes that the young
people visiting his park are being put under a spell that renders them mindless
and compliant. He wants the gang to investigate. Fred, Daphne, Velma, Shaggy,
and Scooby are reluctant to work together, but must team up if they are to
unravel the mystery of Spooky Island.

Scooby-Doo 2: Monsters UnleashedReunited after their adventure
on Spooky Island, Mystery Inc. is being honored in their hometown of Coolsville
with the opening of the Coolsonian Criminology Museum. The museum's curator,
Patrick Wisely (Seth Green, Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me) has
created an exhibit featuring costumes worn by culprits in the many cases the
gang has cracked. All hell breaks loose during the museum's grand opening when
the costumes come to life. The mayhem prompts dogged reporter Heather
Jasper-Howe (Alicia Silverstone, Clueless) to trash Mystery Inc. in the
press. To save their reputation, the gang must figure out who's bringing these
old monsters back to life.

The Evidence

To the extent that Scooby-Doo deserves the critical drubbing it
received, it's because director Raja Gosnell and Warner Bros. executives didn't
decide until the eleventh hour what kind of film they were making. In trying to
appeal to two different audiences -- young children and nostalgic adults -- they
ended up making a movie that doesn't quite work for either. The original
screenplay, written by James Gunn (Tromeo and Juliet), was pitched
squarely at adults who loved Scooby-Doo Where Are You! when they were
kids. Aggressively self-aware, it included overt drug use by Shaggy and Scoob,
as well as a little girl-on-girl action between Daphne and Velma. Gosnell
eventually softened his approach, making the film more appropriate for a younger
audience. The result is a ton of inane, family-friendly silliness (including a
farting contest between Shaggy and Scooby) laced with eyebrow-raising double
entendres likely to make parents showing the flick to their kids squirm with
discomfort. Worst of all, the movie culminates in a Scrappy-Doo slamming finale
that is jarringly out of place since its originally intended postmodern sense of
humor is largely neutered otherwise.

Where the movie has taken some undue flak is in its use of a CGI Scooby-Doo.
Once the dubious decision to make a live-action Scooby flick was made, a 3D
computer-generated version of the pooch was really the only viable approach. And
the special effect itself is quite good -- as realistic as an anthropomorphized
talking dog should be. More important than the quality of the effect, perhaps,
is that Gosnell and voice actor Neil Fanning (who'd never previously voiced
Scoob) nail the dog's personality. The heart and soul of Scooby's animated
adventures is always the genuine warmth of his friendship with Shaggy. In
Scooby-Doo, the duo gets plenty of screen time, and Fanning and Matthew
Lillard (whose performance as Shaggy is eerily accurate) exude heartfelt
camaraderie throughout. If the rest of the movie captured the essence of
Scooby-Do Where Are You! as effectively as it does the friendship between
Shaggy and Scoob, it would be easy to recommend.

Though the movie flopped, Gosnell and Gunn are much more successful in
walking the fine line between kid-friendly shenanigans and shameless pandering
to nostalgia-hungry adults in Scooby-Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed. Gone are
most of the double entendres and hyper-obvious references to Shaggy and Scooby
suffering from marijuana-induced munchies (though there is an extended sequence
in which Velma sexes it up in skin-tight orange vinyl). Instead, the movie
shoots self-aware winks at the adult crowd by featuring a rogues' gallery of
baddies from Scooby-Doo Where Are You!, including Miner Forty-Niner, the
Black Knight, the ghost of Captain Cutler, the Creeper, the Tar Monster, the
10,000 Volt Ghost, and the Ozark Witch. It's a surprising amount of fun for fans
of the old series. Kids will love the Day-Glo production design (heavily
influenced by the old cartoons), army of digitally rendered villains, and light
smattering of fart jokes. Lillard continues to do an admirable job of acting
alongside a cartoon dog, though his Shaggy impersonation isn't quite as
convincing here as it was in the original. Scooby-Doo 2: Monsters
Unleashed is, at best, disposable fun -- better than the original, though
that ain't saying much.

The two films land on DVD in excellent 1080p/VC-1 transfers. Colors are
bold, blacks are deep and satisfying, and detail is superb. Grain is tight and
controlled to the point of being almost non-existent, even in the many sequences
set in the dark. Scooby-Doo's audio mix is an old school Dolby Digital
5.1 (a concession to the fact that the movie was simultaneously released on HD
DVD, a format that lacked the disc space for high definition video, uncompressed
audio tracks, and supplements). It's not a bad track, but nowhere near as bright
or dynamic as the DTS-HD master audio track that accompanies Scooby-Doo 2:
Monsters Unleashed.

Disc One of the set is identical to the original Scooby-Doo Blu-ray.
It includes an impressive list of supplements along with the main feature:

There are two commentary tracks -- one with Gosnell and his producers, the
other with the film's cast. Both are decent, though plagued by long gaps of
silence -- surprising considering the number of participants on each track.

"Unmasking the Mystery" (22:10) An above-average electronic
press kit, this featurette offers the standard fawning interviews with the cast
and crew, but also delves into the history of the characters and creation of a
3D CG version of Scooby-Doo. Moments of unintentional hilarity include Sarah
Michelle Gellar talking about playing Daphne as though the role is as
challenging has Hamlet, and Freddie Prinze Jr. claiming (with a straight face)
that Scooby-Doo cartoons are literature and should be taught in schools. On the
other hand, Rowan Atkinson's explanation of the difficulties of acting alongside
an invisible dog is actually interesting.

"Scary Places" (4:22) This is a brief piece that offers a
behind-the-scenes look at Bill Boes' production design for the movie. Boes
discusses how he tried to work within the visual style established by
Scooby-Doo, Where Are You!j.

"The Mystery Van" (1:02) Bill Boes returns to discuss the
design and creation of the movie's Mystery Machine. In addition to a brief tour
of the van used in the movie, Boes provides a glimpse of the many design options
explored by the artists working on the movie.

"Rain on the Set" (1:18) Members of the cast and crew gripe
about how the location shoot in Queensland was plagued by frequent torrential
rain showers.

In addition to the commentaries and featurettes, there's also a reel of
deleted scenes with optional commentary; a music video for Outkast's "The
Land of a Million Drums"; and a theatrical trailer as well as an
advertisement for the movie's soundtrack.

Scooby-Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed isn't lavished with as many extras
as its predecessor, but Disc Two does offer some supplemental content.

"Scooby-Doo's Triple Threat" (10:20) This is an electronic
press kit that covers Bill Boes' set designs, the stunts coordinated by J.J.
Markaro, and the digital and practical effects designed by Peter Crossman.

"True Ghoul Hollywood Stories" (5:47) This featurette gives
us a behind-the-scenes look at the Cotton Candy Glob, Redbeard's Ghost, the
Ozark Witch, and the actors who portray them.

"Scooby-Doo is The Dancing Dog" (5:30) This featurette
deconstructs the special effects involved in a scene in which Scooby disco
dances.

In addition to the three featurettes, the disc contains a reel of deleted
scenes, and music videos for "Thank You (Falletin Me Be Mice Elf
Again)" by Big Brovaz and "Don't Wanna Think About You" by Simple
Plan.

Closing Statement

Fans of Raja Gosnell's Scooby-Doo movies will find little to complain about
in Scooby-Doo 1 & 2 Collection (Blu-ray). The transfers for both
films are excellent, the set is priced to move, and there's a solid slate of
extras despite it being a budget release. But those just looking for a little
Mystery Inc. entertainment would be best served by sticking with the cartoons --
these are not good movies.